The elder-led church will only be effective…when their work is undertaken, not as detached directors, but as godly men active in church life and engaged in people’s lives.

Many elder-led churches are broken. Think, for example, about these all-too-familiar scenarios.

Laissez-faire elders: The elders are mere “yes men” to the lead minister. They look to him to be the star of the show and see themselves as gatekeepers there to ensure nothing excessive or terrible happens, and nothing happens too fast.

Divided elders: The pastor is under attack by a new, dominant elder. Quietly but forcefully, he’s undermined the pastor and rallied a couple of elders to see things his way. Church division and pastor burnout are just around the corner.

Micromanaging elders: The elders are active and hands-on. But their hands are on everything. Alongside matters of pastoral and theological significance, they discuss minor things like the coffee machine and staging for the Christmas carols event. They’re overwhelmed and behind because each issue they face has to be worked out from scratch. There’s no big picture of a gospel church in front of them, just a hundred separate issues that need to be addressed now.

To these scenarios, dozens of others could be added: elder-led churches where there’s unresolved conflict, a slow-moving bureaucracy, ineffective busyness, lone-ranger pastors, narcissistic leaders, or gospel-stifling traditionalism.

This litany of failure can make it look as if eldership itself is the problem. Pastor-led churches make progress; elder-led churches don’t. If, however, these church scenarios are examined through a biblical lens, it becomes clear the problem isn’t eldership per se but the way many elder teams work. The Scriptures, by contrast, unfold a picture of eldership that generates compelling and effective leadership for healthy, gospel-hearted churches.

Pathway to Health

Four themes in the Bible’s picture orient us toward what healthy elder-led churches look like.

1. Value eldership.

Eldership is at the heart of God’s leadership plan for his people. Elders are prominent throughout the biblical narrative, with some 100 Old Testament references to elders and a further 60 in the New Testament. Elders were appointed in every church (Acts 14:23) to be pastors (shepherds) and overseers of the flock.

The entire biblical narrative shows that eldership shouldn’t be thought of as an exclusively Presbyterian thing, a pragmatic thing, or a bureaucratic thing—much less a problematic thing—but as a deeply biblical thing. But eldership will only work well in a church when it’s valued by all: the pastor, the elders, and the whole congregation.

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